News

Side meeting on combating trafficking in human beings organized by the Belarusian side and IOM in Belarus at the 26th Summer Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly was held in Minsk on July 6. Within the framework of the forum, Galina Tiurina, member of the Board of the international public association "Gender Perspectives", presented her report.

Chairperson of the Board of the International public association "Gender Perspectives" Irina Alkhovka addressed Informal Interactive Multi-stakeholders Hearings in support of the preparatory process towards the High-Level Plenary Meeting to review the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons.

This year the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked Belarus 30th out of 144 countries in its Global Gender Gap Index. According to its indicators, Belarus surpassed highly developed countries such as Canada (35) and the United States (45). However, unlike other countries at the top of the list, Belarus does not have any coherent strategy to achieve gender equality.

Chairperson of the Board of Gender Perspectives, Irina Alkhovka, has attended the annual WAVE Conference. She facilitated the workshop "Primary prevention of violence against women – everybody talks about it but little is done. How can this be changed?" Gender Perspectives has been a member of WAVE network since 2012 and regularly contributes to its annual reports.

The first and only Belarusian national hot line for domestic violence prevention celebrated its four-year anniversary in August, 2016. Since 2012 it has received 8,445 phone calls. The Belarusian non-profit “Gender Perspectives” runs the hotline from Minsk. They pioneered the much-needed service, creating a point of entry for women who found themselves in dire circumstances.

In July 2016, Belarusian Facebook users showed support for the initiative #IamNotAfraidToSayIt (#янебаюсясказаць in Belarusian). Originally a Facebook post by a Ukrainian journalist against gender-based violence, it quickly grew into a spontaneous online phenomenon which transcended borders.

La Strada Program was launched in our country 15 years ago. The first and the most important stage of its work was opening of a hotline on safe travel abroad and support for victims of human trafficking in January, 2001.

'Construction workers suffer for the Olympics in Russia', 'Exploitation on mushroom farms in The Netherlands', 'Abuse in Czech asparagus field', 'Inhumane conditions in Italian tomato fields' and 'Strawberry pickers in Greece shot at'. This has happened right here in Europe.